Maritime security, ‘Blue Economy’ to dominate India-Africa Summit

New Delhi : Ahead of the third India-Africa Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday said peacekeeping, maritime security and ‘Blue Economy’ are three major areas where India has been engaging Africa.”Africa has a long coastline, which is subject to global threat like piracy and the Indian navy has played a very significant role on the east coast of Africa in guarding the trade routes, in securing the coastlines, even helping African nations organising international events by providing naval security,” said Navtej Singh Sarna, Secretary (West), MEA.Stating that Indian has done its bit in trying to build maritime capacity and is doing hydrographic surveys, he said, “We have done work in this area with Mauritius, Tanzania, Kenya and other countries. This is the one area of immense security interest both to Africa and India.” “This is also the first summit which is taking place after the United Nation’s adoption of the ‘Development Agenda 2030’ a month ago, which also has certain objectives and sustainable development goals, and the accompanying narrative is broadly in alignment with our own priorities,” he added.